How former NASCAR Cup Series champions reacted to the severe penalty imposed on Brad Keselowski and RFK Racing


How former NASCAR Cup Series champions reacted to the severe penalty imposed on Brad Keselowski and RFK Racing

Brad Keselowski

NASCAR made waves in Cup Series after they imposed one of the severest penalties in recent history on RFK Racing and its co-owner, driver Brad Keselowski. The team was punished for unauthorized and illegitimate modification of a single vendor-supplied part, which details NASCAR is yet to reveal completely.

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The 2012 Cup Series champion and his No:6 team will endure a deduction of 100 owner points, 100 driver points, and 10 playoff points. Brad Keselowski will also see his Crew chief Matt McCall out for the next 4 races alongside paying a hefty fine of $100,000.

With the stakes at the highest, Brad Keselowski’s fellow computers were somewhat reluctant to convey their thoughts on the issue at hand but a few of them came forth and gave their understanding and opinion on the penalties.   

Find out how the Cup Series grid reacted to Brad Keselowski’s penalty

Kyle Larson
Kyle Larson and Chase Elliot

The 2020 Cup series champion Chase Elliot acknowledged the severity of the penalty and demanded NASCAR release the details of the reasons behind the penalty for NASCAR’s future. His Hendrick Motorsports teammate and reigning cup Series Champion Kyle Larson also acknowledged the severity but added that it’s hard for him to give further comments on it considering his lack of knowledge of the issue.

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“Massive. Massive penalty. I would like to know. I think it might be good for them, they don’t have to release it to the public, but I think it would be good for NASCAR to say, ‘Hey, this is what they did.’ If there was any gray area there, if they were fixing the damage, if there was something not intentional, I think it would be good to learn more about the situation,” Chase Elliott said.

“I don’t know much about it. It’s hard for me to comment on it, I don’t even know what happened. Obviously, big penalty. I don’t know much more than anybody else does,” says Kyle Larson.

NASCAR
Kurt Busch, Joey Logano and Kevin Harvick

The 2004 Cup series champion Kurt Busch suggested that it was a hard penalty and added it is important to stay straight and narrow on modification of distributed parts. The 2018 champion Joey Logano said the severity of the penalty has created an atmosphere of fear among the teams when it comes to modification and the 2012 champion Kevin Harvick was about NASCAR’s efforts to make sure the grid is clean and fair.

“It’s a harsh penalty and it sets a tone of these parts are distributed and you’re not supposed to mess with them. I don’t know what they did to be able to really comment on it. You’ve got to try and stay on the straight and narrow,” Kurt Busch said.

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“I’m pretty sure it scares the hell out of everyone, which is probably some of the attention of NASCAR. They said they were going to put their foot down. We don’t know what it was. What happened. But we do know the penalty was huge. I know we probably shouldn’t screw around,” Says Joey Logano.

“I don’t know the severity of it. Obviously, it must have been pretty severe for that type of penalty. I know it’s a priority of the garage to try to keep this process clean, and it’s better for everybody if it’s clean,” Kevin Harvick said.

Also read: ‘We’re working hard to make it happen,’ Cup Series rookie Harrison Burton is all ready to make a comeback following his fall to obscurity after early-season heroics